busy day

We received our Letter of Approval via Fed Ex yesterday. It was so great! I had lots to do in order to get it back same day to our agency. I had to fill out all of the travel papers, gather and notarize tax returns, w-2s and k1's, passport copies, notarize vaccination affidavit, create, notarize and send for authentication a power of attorney (for Scott), apply for visa's (for myself and Mckenzie), and on and on.
Meili took a nice long nap which helped so I could get it all done.
It is always a bit emotional to complete part of the process. We've been waiting for a long time to be able to complete this step and to enjoy the day! The letter of approval (loa) asked us if we were still willing to adopt Hong Yuan Xiu and we had to sign and date it. Then, after the rest of the paper work that came with it was complete I sent it off. I had such a peaceful feeling leaving Fed Ex. We are so close to having her home!!!
Wow, a family of 7... pretty hard to believe :)
I completely spaced off my scout training meeting last night... oops... sorry guys!
Oh, we had to decide who was going to travel before we sent stuff back - it is Mckenzie!!! She is sooo excited. We talked with her teacher about her missing school. She agreed that it would be a wonderful trip. Mckenzie wants to go to the Great Wall - I need to decide if I am tough enough to deal with the frigid temperatures of Beijing in January.
Hope all is well! Take care!
Melanie

LOA

HI!!! WE JUST GOT THE PHONE CALL FROM OUR AGENCY at 10:30 am!!! THEY RECEIVED OUR LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. WE WILL TRAVEL SOMETIME MID JANUARY (probably).
I am soooo excited!!! She is our daughter!!!
Our agency will fed ex the package today. We will sign and send back tomorrow. and then it will be off to China. China then will approve us for travel (this is taking 3 weeks)- then our agency will request a US consolate appointment at the end of the trip - once the consolate date is set we will plan our travel.
YAHOO (OR YABOO - for my good friend in UT)

Mckenzie's passport

We received Mckenzie's passport today. Now if only we would get our letter of approval... day 82 - but, who is counting :)

We are home! We had a fabulous week away. First we enjoyed a few days in Portland with Scott's sister and family and then 4 or so days at Scott's parents house (thanks to Kim and Vaughn and Loye for letting us come). We had a great time just hanging out and being together. The kids loved playing with their cute cousins... it was amazing to watch Meili, Maren and Paige play so well together. (she loved baby Abi (sp? - Abigail)and baby Isaac) And, finally the 5 year old boy cousins played really well together!!! Yeah!!! I love it when they hit the age of enjoying each other.

When we got home we were lucky enough to make it for my niece (on the other side) b-day party (they actually brought the party to us (thank-you :) ) Happy b-day Rylee!!! She had most of her cousins here to celebrate with her. Our kids are going to go through cousin withdrawl when they have to go back to school on Monday.

Today we have waited 80 days since Pre-approval. Our agency was closed Thursday (of course), and Friday so on Monday hopefully they will have 3 days worth of packages delivered and hopefully one of them will contain information for us. Mckenzie is getting very excited to go... Scott and I talked about it today and we are pretty sure she will be the one who goes with me.

I found this pretty song on you tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSV5xW-NLu8 I love the songwritter and singer... I think he is a Christian singer and he writes a lot of songs about adoption. If you have a second take a listen :)

Have a great weekend!!!

Melanie

Mckenzie's passport

Well, Scott and I decided that we should get Mckenzie a passport. We took her to Costco to get her picture taken and then raced over to the court house with her birth certificate to order it. It is taking the passport people 6-10 weeks to process them so we also decided to do an expedited service (with the holidays and then she will also need a visa and that will take time)... so, she should have it in two weeks. She is thrilled with the thought of possibly being able to go (she said that 15 hours on the airplane with nothing to do but read would be heaven). The boys love the idea of dad staying home... I think Scott likes the idea... I'm not sure how I feel...??? It is a safe country and I know we would be fine... in fact, we'd have a great time together. If he does not go I may make him promise to take me to Hawaii next summer for our 15th anniversary :)

Our agency is saying that Letters of Approval are just trickling out right now. 1 or 2 at a time/ week or two weeks. If this is the case we may not hear something in the next batch like we hoped. Who really knows... it is definately taking a lot longer than they and we thought. I think we are going to start getting Mckenzie's stuff ready (passport, shots, visa, etc) for back up in case Scott can not travel. She would love to go and I of course would love to have her with me... but, it is such an intense bonding period I would definately love to have Scott along. Guess we will wait and see :)

Day 65

Well, we have been waiting 65 days today (some wait a lot longer - some do not). It is hard not to become obsessed. Hopefully, we will hear something soon! It is looking less likely that we will be able to travel during the Christmas break and end of year. Typically 6-8 weeks is needed between the next form we are waiting on and actual travel. Hopefully news will come soon!
The kids are doing well. They get out of school next Thursday (they go only a half of a day) and are out until the Monday after Thanksgiving!! Wow, it is a long break. Parent teacher conferences are on Thursday and Friday and the next week is for Thanksgiving.
We have been trying to potty train Meili. I am done with diapers. Her skin is so sensative that she gets sores from diapers... It has been a long 2 days but hopefully it will get better. She understands but just doesn't like to do it.
Hope all is well.
Melanie

Love without Boundaries

Dr. Buckmiller and Emily are in China doing surgeries on some children. It looks like they removed a hemangioma today from a child. (This is the nurse and doctor that we will take Lili to.) The address to their work in China is: http://lwbchinablog.blogspot.com/

Another address to look at is http://www.chinesestarfish.blogspot.com/ (Thanks Sara and Jodie for telling me about it!!!)

Halloween

On Tuesday, Scott and I were scrambling trying to put a Luke Skywalker Padawan (? Davis insisted it all went together) costume together. When Reese and Mckenzie got home from school they thought they should have one too... so, they all ended up being padawans and I have to say they all looked pretty cute.
Scott and I went to Vegas Wednesday morning and my mom watched the kids for us (thanks again mom!!! we love you!). We had a great time going to a show, dinner, wandering around and spent a lot of time with my brother Ryan. He is doing so great and it makes us very happy to see him happy and doing well. While Scott was in his classes Ryan took me all around town... and to the NY, NY roller coaster... we had a great time... it has been a long time since we have spent this much time together.
It was soooo nice to get away with Scott!!!
No new news on Lili. Hopefully, we will hear something soon.
I hope all is well. Melanie